Occam's Razor
by SueDeauxnim
Summary: The simplest explanation is more likely the correct one. In that case, what could be the explanation for why Shinichi is always surrounded by murders...? Eventual KaitoShinichi.
1. Memory 1

**Fandom:** Detective Conan/Magic Kaito  
**Pairing:** Future Kaito/Shinichi  
**Overall Rating:** M  
**Chapter Rating:** PG-13  
**Overall Warnings:** Blood/gore, violence, homosexuality  
**Chapter Warnings:** Mild blood/gore, violence  
**Genre:** Drama, tragedy, horror, suspense, crime, thriller  
**Words:** 2352  
**Music**: Snow in Summer - NieR OST

Glossary of Japaneses terms:  
-chan: honorific usually used for girls, small children, and pets  
-ojisan: literally means uncle; can be used informally to refer to a middle-aged man, similar to "mister"  
tou-san: father; less formal than otou-san or otou-sama

* * *

It's quite astonishing, really, how no one ever figured it out. Or if anyone did, they never had the guts to come right out and accuse me. Not enough evidence, perhaps. In which case I suppose it would be my fault; but it isn't as though I would make it _easy _for others to capture me, is it? No one should expect that; I can't be blamed for being a living organism with a survival instinct.

A few people like Hattori and detective Takagi have given me strange looks before, and even Hakuba has sent the occasional leery stare my way. However, if they had any suspicions they never acted on them. And that's just depressing. Or it would be, if it were possible for me to feel anything. As it is, it certainly makes me question the continued survival of the human race.

It should have been simple enough for them to reason out. Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate: Plurality should not be posited without necessity. And what would be a more simple explanation: Hundreds upon hundreds of coincidences resulting in as many dead bodies dropping at my feet? Or that the cause of it all was none other than me?

But I ramble. Good stories should begin at the beginning, unless one is attempting to set up a frame story. Looking back on everything, I suppose it all started when I was four years old….

* * *

It's difficult for me to remember the less important particulars, like the time of day or the location. I was at that age where memories can begin to be stored long-term, but their details are vague, clouded by that veil of childish incomprehension. I can at least remember the critical components, however.

My mother and father had invited Ran and her parents to dinner. Being so young and therefore having smaller stomachs, Ran and I finished early, leaving the adults to their boring conversations in order to begin exploring. If I remember correctly, the restaurant was attached to some fancy hotel or other. There was no dearth of customers, and Ran and I giggled uncontrollably as we weaved through the tables of the restaurant and the legs of people loitering in the lobby, playing those mysterious games understood only by the young.

The two of us had managed to convince several other bored children to play with us, and our antics were inspiring smiles and annoyed glares alike. Two people, however, were paying no attention to our child's play. I paused momentarily in my running around to observe a pair of men, arguing in whispers. One was becoming red in the face and gesticulating wildly while the other, younger man had a calm, perhaps even smug expression. Before I could examine them closer, someone ran into me from behind and the two of us nearly fell over.

'Ow! Shinichi you stupid-head! Why'd you stop all of a sudden?' Ran's voice asked.

'You're the stupid-head, stupid-head! Watch where you're running next time!' I retorted. 'Anyways, look at those two. What do you think they're arguing about?'

'I don't care, and you shouldn't either. C'mon, everyone else is waiting!'

I might have said something in reply, but I can't remember if I was agreeing to go with Ran or if I was going to tell her to be quiet so I could eavesdrop better, because at that moment, the red-faced man pulled a pocket knife out of his coat. Before the younger man's eyes had finished widening in surprise, he had been stabbed in the chest, probably through his lungs if the blood that he later coughed up was any indication.

Oh, but I didn't think, 'He's probably been stabbed through the lungs' at the exact moment the victim was attacked. I mean, first of all, he didn't start coughing up blood until he had fallen to the floor and tried feebly to crawl to safety. And second, I was only four at the time, and not many four-year-olds see a man stabbed in the chest start coughing up blood and calmly think, 'Oh, he's coughing blood. Coughing is a result of the body's efforts to clear its airways, and since he was stabbed in the chest as opposed to say, his windpipe, the most probable explanation is that the knife pierced his lung.' No, no, I was still _normal_, back then.

Where was I? Ah, right.

As I was saying, before the younger man could react, the red-faced man had plunged his blade into the other's chest and pulled it out. The former collapsed and began coughing up blood as he tried desperately to drag his body across the carpet, but was stopped by the knife being sheathed in his shoulder blade.

At this point, everyone was probably screaming and calling for help or for the police. I say 'probably' because at that point I was in shock, and could hear nothing over a roar of static echoing through my ears. Vaguely I sensed Ran tugging at my sleeve, but I was too busy watching the knife be thrust over and over into a body whose struggles were gradually becoming weaker and weaker.

'…out of here, Shinichi!' I heard as my ears began working again.

'R-Right!' I gasped. 'Let's run!'

Her hand and mine instinctively reached for each other and we tore through the lobby together, following everyone's wild, pathless flight.

Everyone minus one. While no one was really running in the same direction, we were all moving in unison away from the butchery, our paths radiating from the epicenter of the chaos. This made the solitary presence of a young boy running towards the two men very odd indeed. Odd enough to make me slow to a halt and turn to follow his path, the grip that Ran and I shared nearly snapping apart like a frozen rubber band.

I think Ran almost yelled at me again, but I suppose she noticed what I was staring at before she got anything out. We were probably both wondering, _What does he think he's doing? Does he think he's going to be a hero or something?_ But now that I'm thinking about it again, perhaps a better question would have been 'Why didn't I do anything to help?' For what happened next….What happened next preoccupies my dreams to this day.

I'm not sure why that man did it. Perhaps he was too caught up in the emotion of the moment, or perhaps he was surprised and simply reacted automatically. But, for one reason or another, in the blink of an eye the knife had been sunk into the boy's torso.

For a moment, it felt as though everything had gone completely silent. The red-faced man's eyes grew as he realized what he had done. Then the boy screamed, and sound returned to the hotel lobby once more.

The man sprang to his feet and stumbled as he ran for the exit. I saw this all peripherally, as I was too busy focusing on the boy crying weakly, curled around the blade now encased in his stomach. I followed Ran limply as she dragged me towards the other child, tears spilling from her eyes and incomprehensible blubbering pouring from her mouth. The two of us collapsed to our knees as soon as we reached him, and while I can't speak for Ran, I was surprised at the time that my legs had been able to keep me up for so long.

Ran trembled and shook like a leaf as she asked the boy, me, someone, anyone, what she should do. Or at least, I think that's what she said. She was a bit difficult to understand.

'I…It hurts,' the boy whimpered. He had his hands clasped around the knife's handle. As I watched helplessly, I noticed a slight twitch of the boy's arms. He was trying to pull the knife out.

'Stop it!' I cried, grabbing his wrists tightly enough to break his grip. It was distressingly easy to do. 'Don't pull it out, you'll only make it worse!' Tears were spilling from the boy's eyes, but he nodded once in response to my command. As I pulled my hands away, I looked down to see that they were covered in red.

Ran said something that I assumed meant she was going to get help; it was still difficult to interpret.

Me, I was unable to do anything. I have never felt so powerless, before or since. All I could do was sit there silently, watching as blood began to fill my vision.

* * *

When I came back to my senses, the first thing I noticed was the red stain smeared over the faux-marble floors of the hotel, labeled with a yellow tag upon which was printed the letter 'D'. A few feet away, a larger puddle of blood sat, congealing, similarly labeled. The boy had disappeared from my line of sight. I looked around and noticed red and blue lights flashing through the windows. The police, probably, and perhaps even an ambulance. That could be why the boy was gone; he was being taken to the hospital. But in that case the lights outside would be coming only from the police cars; the ambulance carrying the boy would, hopefully, be long gone. Although, deep down, I could feel that he would not make it. And as it turns out, I was right.

My chin rubbed against something soft and warm that smelled of my father, and I looked down to see that someone had draped his coat over my shoulders. It trailed onto the ground, but it was mercifully warm. For a moment, I felt cocooned in paternal comfort.

All around me the murmurs of people comforting each other or trying to rationalize the night's events lapped across my ears, one conversation receding to be replaced by another. The continuous noise was almost comforting, in a way.

'I overheard that the murderer…'

'…-one know where Fumi-chan is?'

'…caught cheating with…'

'There, there, just try not to think…'

'…lost his job…'

'Has anyone seen…'

'…says that he knew the victim…'

'Do you think the police…'

'…shame about the little boy…'

I stopped listening when I realized that I had been biting my lip to keep from crying out. My teeth had left indentations which I ran my tongue over to keep myself occupied. No matter what the justification the red-faced man had, it didn't change the fact that at least one person, probably two, had died in an untimely and painful manner in front of my eyes. And of those two, one of them had been a child, innocent of any crime apart from being in the way. It wasn't fair, I thought. It just wasn't fair.

And so it was that, at the tender age of four, my eyes were wrested open to three facts.

First: That the world did not consist entirely of happy, smiling people to be trusted and befriended.

Second: That death was not some sort of peaceful, deep sleep, from which one could be awakened with a kiss of true love or some magical spell.

And third: That life was not fair.

I blinked furiously, tilting my head up so that the tears quickly forming in my eyes wouldn't fall out. The light from the chandeliers above, however, was bright and only made my eyes water more. I didn't want anyone to see me crying, and so pulled father's coat over my head.

It was in this state, shivering and sniveling, that Ran and our parents found me. When my mother pulled away the coat I had curtained over myself, I hastily scrubbed my face, fearing Ran's ridicule, but when I looked up, it appeared that she had also been busy crying. She was clinging vulnerably to Mouri-ojisan's leg, and didn't seem to be in the mood for teasing at all.

'Shinichi, are you going to be okay?' my mother asked, for once eschewing the use of 'Shin-chan.'

I didn't entirely trust my voice, and so nodded in response.

She smiled at me, in that way that adults smile at children when they're not actually happy but don't want to upset their young charges. It didn't comfort me. Even then I could detect the insincerity in that expression. 'Will you be okay if we go back home now?'

Another silent nod.

'Alright then, up we go…' she said as she picked me up. From my perch in mother's arms, I watched Ran lift her arms toward her father in that universal children's gesture for 'pick me up.'

Our group made its way towards the parking lot, not quite in silence, but in that buzzing drone of adult conversation that I held no interest in. When we passed the police cars, a question popped into my mind.

'Tou-san,' I asked, 'what happened to that guy with the knife?'

The murmur of boring conversation halted as my father glanced aside to me. He had a grim look on his face.

'Unfortunately, when we managed to corner him…'

'Tch! The bastard was hiding a cyanide capsule in his mouth. Bit down on it when it looked like he'd be caught,' Ran's father finished. 'He's dead now.'

I tightened my grip on my mother's arm. 'And…' I started. My voice broke off and I started again. 'And what about that boy? Is he going to be okay?'

There was a moment of silence as the adults hesitated to answer. But that silence was all the answer I needed.

Eventually, it was Mouri-ojisan who spoke up. 'Oh just tell the kid the truth already. Look,' he said, voice surprisingly gentle as he looked me in the eye, 'he was wounded pretty seriously. The ambulance was a little slow in arriving. While it's possible for him to be saved, I wouldn't get your hopes up.'

There were a few indignant cries at his blunt honesty but I wasn't paying attention.

All that was on my mind was the fact that there was a problem in my world, and I was turning all of my mental capacities towards solving it.

* * *

A/N: Extended author's notes can be found on my Livejournal.

Sigh, this is my first fanfiction I've ever published, but I hope you all enjoy it. Also, I realize that the explanation of Occam's Razor is a bit off, but hey, you can only fit so much into the summary box. Umm...I don't really have anything else to say. But feel free to leave questions.


	2. Memory 2

**Fandom:** Detective Conan/Magic Kaito  
**Pairing:** Future Kaito/Shinichi  
**Chapter Rating: **PG  
**Chapter Warnings:** Nothing really  
**Words:** 2,276  
**Music: **Lilium - Music Box Version - Elfen Lied OST

Glossary of Japanese terms:  
No honorific: calling someone by a family name alone is being very familiar (or rough). Calling someone by a given name alone is less rough, but more familiar. Using no honorific when one is expected can be an expression of contempt.  
-kun: honorific used by a socially superior male to a socially inferior male. Familiarly used among male students and boys who grew up together. Some teachers bosses address female students or employees with "-kun," but it's still considered a masculine suffix.  
sensei: teacher; also used to refer to physicians. Frequently used to refer to experts in a field or people in any respected occupation. Can be used like an honorific with a name or a title, as in "kouchou-sensei" (Mr. Principal).

* * *

I was never quite the same after The Revelation. My various friends all noticed and attempted to pester me about it, until Ran came to my rescue. She was able to convince everyone—with the exception of my mother, unfortunately—that what I needed the most was for the people around me to disregard the dark mood I had fallen into, that the best thing for me was a calm and quiet environment to think in. Bless her heart; Ran has always had an uncanny ability to read me, even now when there's nothing left to read.

Ah, speaking of Ran, it was right after Kazuki's death (I discovered his name several years later, while going through my father's case files) that she decided to take up studying karate. I've always wondered how it was that Ran was able to move on with her life after that moment, and use that experience to become stronger. Perhaps I just lacked some strength of mind or force of character, some special essence of being human. While she decided learn how to defend herself and make sure that no one near her ever ended up like that boy again, I simply sat around moping for months.

Those months were spent contemplating the problem I had discovered in my world. And one day, in a moment of serendipity, I came across an answer.

That day in kindergarten, I had gotten into a little scuffle with another boy. I was walking home with Ran, a report about my misbehavior resting in my bag, waiting to be delivered to my parents.

'Why would you do something so stupid and mean, Shinichi?' Ran asked me.

'You wouldn't understand.'

'How do you know? If you don't tell me then obviously I won't understand!'

'Watanabe was being a jerk. He ate Shunsuke-kun's candy.'

'That's not a really good reason for hitting him.'

'No, it's not _just_ that. He…he ate it, and I saw it and told him he shouldn't have done it, that it wasn't fair, and he just looked at me, and do you know what he said? He said….' My face contorted in anger, and I looked away from Ran, not wanting to show her such an ugly side of myself. 'He said to me, "Life isn't fair." And when he said that…I just couldn't control myself.'

There was a pause in the conversation as Ran thought of what to say. I continued to stare at the ground in front of me. The streets were as busy as ever, but the space around us felt incongruously quiet.

'Well…I can understand you being angry…but why did you get _that_ angry? I was really surprised! Just what he said made you mad?'

When I nodded in response, Ran added, in a tone of voice too solemn and grave to rightfully belong to any four-year-old, 'But it's true what he said. Life isn't fair, Shinichi.'

'I know that!'

I tried to push away the guilt I felt when I saw Ran flinch away from me, and did my best to calm down, to indicate that I wasn't mad at her. Not directly, at least. 'I know life isn't fair, otherwise nothing bad would ever happen to good people and nothing good would ever happen to bad people. But something happens like a nice little girl getting cancer, or a murderer walking in a store and getting a prize for being the millionth customer, that's not something that can really be controlled. What happened today wasn't like that. Watanabe made a decision to do something bad; it had nothing to do with whether or not life was fair.'

'Yeah, but….' Ran hesitated as she searched for a way to phrase her argument. 'I still don't think that you should have hit him. Sensei said that you should treat others the way you want to be treated.'

'Oh really?' I sneered. 'Then why didn't sensei punish Watanabe for what he did?'

'B-Because! What you did was much worse, I guess. Nobu-kun just took some candy, but you actually made him start bleeding! Really now, Shinichi….'

At this point, I became annoyed and lost interest in our conversation. Ran likely sensed my mood, and spoke no more on our walk back. When we reached the front steps of her residence, she turned around after opening the door as if she had something to say to me, but my disinterested expression probably deterred her. I left as soon as she had shut the door, heading towards home.

As the early spring air blew through the trees, scattering the remnants of their blossoms from the branches, I mulled over the words Ran spoke to me.

Honestly, 'treat others the way you want to be treated'? _How ridiculous_, I thought. It's true that the world would be a better place if everyone followed that philosophy. (…Unless we had a sudden influx of masochists, but I ramble.) However, there were too many people like Watanabe. Too many people like Kazuki's murderer. What did their actions mean? Were they treating others the way they wanted to be treated? In that case, would it not, therefore, be my duty to reciprocate their actions?

And as that thought flitted through my mind, I suddenly understood the solution to my problem. For the first time since Ran and I played together with the other children in that hotel lobby, a grin spread across my features.

With a great weight lifted from my shoulders, I ran home, untroubled by the report lying in my backpack.

* * *

I was still smiling when I walked through the door of my house. Professor Agasa had been completely baffled by my cheerful greeting moments earlier, and I was vaguely interested in seeing how my parents would react to my sudden change in mood.

As soon as the door slammed shut behind me, my mother suddenly materialized, appearing from nowhere in the few seconds I had spared to take off my shoes.

'Welcome home Shin-chan!' she called in a sing-song voice that contradicted the red around her eyes. 'How was school today?'

I made no effort to hide my smile as I told her, 'I got in trouble for fighting with Nobu-kun.'

The interplay of emotions across my mother's face was most amusing. Surprise and happiness from seeing a genuine smile; dismay and anger from the news of my troublemaking; confusion from the combination of these two disparate facts. For once, she was speechless.

I took advantage of her temporary quietude to escape to the library, whereto my father, as I correctly guessed, had retreated.

At my entrance he looked up from some folders that he was perusing, likely containing cases sent to him from the police department for his assessment. 'Welcome home,' he said. Upon further examination of my bearing he added, 'You seem to be quite cheerful today. That's good. Did something happen?'

I gave a little laugh. The best possible thing for me had happened; I had just solved a mystery that had been tormenting me for months. When I told him as much, he smiled.

'That's wonderful news,' he said, putting away the case files. 'Well? Are you going to tell me about your solution to this mystery?'

I was going to do exactly that when mother stepped in, apparently awakened from her momentary muteness, and not very happy.

'Shinichi!' she snapped. 'What did you mean by what you said earlier?'

Still smiling, I calmly rummaged through my bag; the tension in the air was thick, but I was too buoyed up by my enlightenment to notice or care.

For a moment, it seemed as though my mother would tear the paper from my hands. Instead, she removed it from my grasp with surprising tenderness, perhaps to make up for her harsh tone of voice earlier. She moved over to the desk where my father sat, and together they read the report of misbehavior. As their eyes moved down the page, mother seemed to grow more and more worked up, while everything about my father's demeanor seemed to draw inward.

'Explain yourself.' My mother glared at me, arms crossed.

Truthfully, I didn't really feel like explaining, as I had already done so several times that day. First to the teacher, as I tried to justify my actions, then to Watanabe as I gave the most unapologetic apology I could craft at that age, and then once again to Ran on the way home. Frankly, I was getting tired; but then again, odds were that the teacher hadn't mentioned anything about Watanabe's transgression on my misbehavior report, so I thought that perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on my mother for not understanding the situation.

'Today in class it was Aya-chan's birthday, and she and some friends brought treats for everyone to share. Watanabe ate all of his share, but Shunsuke-kun was saving some of his for later and left it on the table, and then Watanabe came and ate it all.'

After hearing this, my mother's expression softened slightly, which I took to be a good sign. However, it seemed she still wasn't satisfied. 'So you thought that meant you could just beat up your classmate?'

'Maybe I was a bit harsh,' I admitted.

My parents waited expectantly for me to say something else, but I remained silent.

'That's…all you have to say for yourself?' Mother looked like she was going to explode again.

'Well, Watanabe didn't have any candy left for me to eat, so…'

The apparent non sequitur completely derailed the conversation for a moment before my mother shook herself out of her stupor. "W-What does that have to do with…?"

My small smile widened into a grin. 'That's what I was going to tell you about, tou-san! I finally figured out what I should do about people like that man who killed Kazuki!'

At the sound of that name, my parents suddenly drooped. As they exchanged conspiring glances, the levity that had recently taken up residence in my heart once more began to sink like a lead balloon. Already, they were beginning to write off everything I had yet to say.

'I-I'm being serious! When we were walking home from school Ran was asking me about why I fought Watanabe and I said that I was only doing what was fair because Watanabe stole what belonged to Shunsuke-kun, and then Ran said that I went too far, and that you should treat people the way you want to be treated! And I was angry with her at first, but then I started thinking and then all of a sudden what she said made sense, because then that would mean that people who killed other people wanted to be killed themselves! And then I thought that it would solve the problem if I just—'

'Shin-chan, that's enough.'

The interjection made me halt in my verbal tracks, tears of frustration welling up but not overflowing as I gritted my teeth in anger.

'Shin-chan, come here.' My mother knelt down and embraced me. I refused to reciprocate her contrived schmaltz, not even deigning to meet either her or my father's gaze. 'I know that…what happened that day was very difficult for you, and that you're still grieving. But you shouldn't let this affect the way you treat your friends at school. I'm sorry for getting so angry earlier. I thought that you had already moved past all of this.'

'Tou-san…' I mumbled. In the edge of my blurred vision, I noticed mother flinch. 'You….Do you think that I said what I did just because I'm grieving? That I'm imp-impale…impaired?'

My father and I locked gazes as he considered me. He finally answered, '…Frankly, Shinichi, I'm not sure what to think. Are you implying that you want to have all murderers killed?'

A shadow of my former smile returned. 'Yep!' I chirped, so pleased at the belief that my father at least took me seriously enough to have listened to me.

Ha, how mistaken I was. As I've learned time and time again, adults rarely if ever take children seriously. In fact, it would take several years for my parents to realize just how devoted to my solution I truly was.

A stern look overcame my father's features. 'Shinichi, I truly wish you were only suggesting that out of grief. Regardless of the reasoning behind your suggestion, however, I must say that such a…"plan"…would be considered excessively cruel by the general public, me included. I would suggest that you go up to your room and cool your head for a while.'

At the time, I really wanted to say something along the lines of no, why don't we all stay here, and why don't you actually listen to me this time instead of automatically discounting everything that comes out of my mouth, because we're inevitably going to have many clashes relating to this issue in the future unless we resolve this now.

Unfortunately, I was not nearly so eloquent at that age. The only thing I could come up with to convey my discontent was to stomp up to my room and slam the door as loudly as possible.

As I lay on my bed, face down where I had thrown myself after locking the door, I briefly considered where my parents' disapproval left me. Was it really important?

I smiled into the sheets. No. Not at all. While their agreement would certainly make things easier for me in the long run, it was by no means a necessity.

I skipped dinner and went to sleep early that night, contemplating how I would go about putting my plans into action.

* * *

A/N: I'm afraid to say that this is the last chapter that I have completed so far. College is busy kicking me in the rear, so I can't guarantee how quickly I'll be able to post the next update, but I'll do it whenever I feel the next chapter is ready.


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